“Respectable employees of the Federal Prison Service, put such a bracelet on Putin,” she said in a video clip, referring to the electronic tracking device that Russian officials were forced to wear on her ankle. “It is he who should be isolated from society and not me, and he should be tried for the genocide of the people of Ukraine and for the fact that he destroyed the male population of Russia en masse.”
Ovsyannikova, the former editor of Russia’s state-run TV Channel 1, made international headlines earlier this year after she broke into the channel’s flagship news programme, carrying a poster that read “Stop the war.” Her protest was widely hailed as a dangerous act of resistance as Russia moved to crack down on critics and public displays of dissent amid its invasion of Ukraine.
On Wednesday, Ovsyannikova again urged Russians not to believe the government’s lies, saying she was targeted simply for telling the truth. After the Russian invasion in February, access to the media was quickly blocked and Moscow banned what it considered “false” news of its attack on Ukraine. Russia media suppression Many journalists were forced to flee the country.
Russia has twice fined Ovsyannikova for defaming its army, and in August placed her under a two-month house arrest for spreading false news about the army, the punishment of which is up to 10 years.
It is still unclear how she managed to escape with her 11-year-old daughter. Ovsyannikova has not responded to calls and texts from the Washington Post in recent days.
Russian media reported that Ovsyannikova’s ex-husband first informed authorities on Saturday that she was missing. Igor Ovsyanikov told the pro-Kremlin network RT that he does not know the whereabouts of his ex-wife, but his daughter does not have a passport.
Ovsyanikova’s statements were similar to Putin’s signed a document Formalization of the annexation of four regions of Ukraine, a violation of international law. Despite this step, Ukrainian forces are making “rapid and strong progress” in the south of the country and liberating “dozens of settlements” from Russian control, President Volodymyr Zelensky said.
Natalia Abakumova contributed to this report.
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